Financing Campaigns--the Money Laundering Scheme of Politics

Very few individuals are sending checks to help campaigns. Most of the campaign finance reports for incumbents are filled with $100-$500 donations from lobbyist-type PACs, corporations, or political PACs. 

There are too many reports and too little time between yesterday's filing deadline and the election to really parse this information in a way that does anyone any justice, but if you have time, you should definitely check out who gave candidates in your own district money.

I am more interested in who and how other candidates give money to one another. Kevin Yoder's PAC, YoPAC, gave every Republican candidate who attended a unity breakfast a check. It looks like he gave $500 checks to Republicans running for House and $1,000 to Republicans running for Senate. The Republicans who didn't receive checks from the YOPAC are somewhat noteworthy.

Lynn Jenkins' PAC-- Ad Astra-- also gave money to candidates. She gave $500 to Senate candidates and $250 for House candidates. It's rumored Jenkins intends to run for Governor. It doesn't appear she gave extra to the people rumored to be on her list for cabinet spots.

Gov. Sam Brownback's PAC, Roadmap PAC, was selective in gifting money to candidates. The PAC gave $1,000 to some Senate candidates and $500 to House candidates.

The Dems have similar PACs. The most notorious is the Bluestem Fund. This is Kathleen Sebelius' PAC of evil, no good, very bad intentions. They spent $236,746. Whoa.

Voters can glean information that isn't typically printed on all of those postcard mailers during campaign season based on some donors. No one campaigns on their position on Uncork Kansas--the possibility of selling liquor and wine in grocery and convenience stores. If a candidate received funds from Casey's General Stores, Quik Trip, Walmart, and/or Hy-Vee, voters can make an assumption that the candidate is friendly to the effort to open up liquor sales. Similarly, if a candidate received funding from the Kansas Beer Wholesalers Association or from any number of liquor stores, you can make a reasonable assumption that the candidate is friendly to keeping a cork in it. (I am interested in this issue, because it is a fairly bipartisan issue, and there are compelling reasons on both sides of it.)

The campaign finance reports can also give you an idea of which candidates are likely to be supportive of expanding Medicaid (ahem. Obamacare. In Kansas. There are candidates who want MORE Obamacare. Baffling.) Look for donations from insurance PACs, and probably pharmaceutical organizations.

Another thing I found of interest, House candidate Russ Jennings was passing out cash to select Republicans. He gave Dorothy Hughes, $200 for example. Jennings, a Lakin Republican, wants to be Speaker of the House. So, you can make some assumptions about why he's giving money to select candidates. Jennings will face Ron Ryckman, Jr. and possibly Jene Vickrey in that race, assuming Republicans can hold the majority. (This cycle? Who knows. At this point, it looks like a guy who has campaigned like ham sandwich--by doing absolutely nothing--is within striking distance of Kevin Yoder.)

You can check out campaign finance reports at the link.